Rude or Polite, City's Officers Leave Raw Feelings in Stops

Published: June 27, 2012

Most of the time, the officers swoop in, hornetlike, with a command to stop: ''Yo! You, come here. Get against the wall.''

They batter away with questions, sometimes laced with profanity, racial slurs and insults: ''Where's the weed?'' ''Where's the guns?''

The officers tell those who ask why they have been stopped to shut up, using names like immigrant, old man or ''bro.''

Next comes the frisk, the rummaging through pockets and backpacks. Then they are gone.

Other times, the officers are polite, their introductions almost gentle. ''Hey, how's it going?'' ''Can you step over here, sir?'' ''We'd like to talk to you.''

The questions are probing, authoritative, but less accusatory. ''What are you doing here?'' ''Do you live here?'' ''Can I see some identification, please?'' During the pat-down, they ask, ''Do you have anything on you?'' They nudge further: ''You don't mind if I search you, do you?'' They explain that someone of a matching description robbed a store a few days ago, or that the stop is a random one, part of a program in a high-crime area. Then they apologize for the stop and say the person is free to go.

In interviews with 100 people who said they had been stopped by the New York police in neighborhoods where the practice is most common, many said the experience left them feeling intruded upon and humiliated. And even when officers extended niceties, like ''Have a nice night,'' or called them ''sir'' and ''ma'am,'' people said they questioned whether the officer was being genuine.

Michael Delgado, 18, said he was last stopped on Grant Street in East New York, Brooklyn. ''I was walking, and a cop said, 'Where's the weed?' '' he recalled. ''In my mind, I'm like, 'Yo, this guy's a racist.' He started frisking me, his hands were in my pockets, but I didn't say anything because my mom always tells me: 'No altercations. Let him do his thing.' ''

When the stop-and-frisk was done, Mr. Delgado said, the officer left him with a casual aside to stay safe.

''Stay safe?'' Mr. Delgado said. ''After he just did all that?''

Last year, city police officers stopped nearly 686,000 people, 84 percent of them black or Latino. The vast majority -- 88 percent of the stops -- led to neither an arrest nor a summons, although officers said they had enough reasonable suspicion to conduct a frisk in roughly half of the total stops, according to statistics provided by the New York Police Department and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Behind each number is a singular and salient interaction between the officers and the person they have stopped. In conducting the interviews, The New York Times sought to explore the simple architecture of the stops -- the officers' words and gestures, actions, explanations, tones of voice and demeanors.

What seems clear is that there is no script for the encounters, or that if there is one, it is not being followed. Under the law, officers must have a reasonable suspicion -- a belief that a crime is afoot -- to stop and question people. One thing an officer cannot do is stop someone based solely on skin color. Yet many of those interviewed said they believed that officers had stopped them because of race -- and race alone.

Al Blount, a minister at a Harlem church, said he had been pulled over. ''They'll ask, 'Where are you headed?' When you're African-American, you have to have a definite destination. Everyone else can just say, 'Mind your own business.' ''

Last month, a federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit alleging that the Police Department's stop-and-frisk tactics systematically violated the constitutional rights of blacks and Latinos, who say they are singled out for stops.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg contend that the stop-and-frisk tactic has reduced crime; nonetheless, they have said they are taking steps to ensure that stops are conducted lawfully. Those measures, they said, are expected to drive down the number of stops, while increasing their quality. The mayor has acknowledged that officers are not always respectful during stops, and said that efforts would be made to improve interactions.

The informal street survey, conducted over the past two weeks, sought to get at the root of an angry groundswell against the police among residents in predominantly minority and poor neighborhoods.

The interviews consisted of five questions: When and where were you stopped? What was the first thing the police officer said to you? How did the officer address you? Did the officer ever explain why he or she had stopped you? What was the last thing the officer said to you?

The answers offered a glimpse into the experience and why it often leaves such a bitter taste in the mouths of so many who have been stopped, and raised questions about whether the Police Department's new emphasis on courtesy and respect would help mend relationships in predominantly minority neighborhoods.

While the encounter is often brief, the impression can be long-lasting.

''I understand that they might need to be aggressive with some people, but you just feel it,'' said Christopher A. Chadwick, 20, a college student from Brooklyn. ''They talk to you like you're ignorant, like you're an animal.'' Mr. Chadwick described a stop that began when an officer said: ''You, come here. Show me your ID.''

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: An article on June 27 about interviews with 100 people who said they had been stopped by the New York police in neighborhoods where the street-stop practice is most common referred imprecisely to the legal standard that governs when police officers are permitted to frisk someone. While the police can stop a person if they believe a crime is afoot, that is not sufficient legal reason to conduct a frisk. (The United States Supreme Court has held that in order for the police to frisk someone, they must have a reasonable belief that the person is armed and dangerous.)